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A Man You Can Bank On
Is it a CRIME to steal from bookies?
Can you TRUST an ex-Bank Manager?
Lambert Hampton is the man the Munni-Munni locals allturn to, and for good reason. This former bank manager helped them transform three million dollars - stolen from bookies by a gang of robbers - into a rescue package for their dying town.
But now the day of reckoning has come.
The crims want the money.
The cops want the money.
A rogue insurance investigator wants the money.
And so do Australia's two most notorious hit men.
In trying to save his town, Lambert is forced to risk everything - his life, the lives of the town folk, his own daughter, ten thousand barramundi and a really lovable Jack Russell.
Can you TRUST an ex-Bank Manager?
Lambert Hampton is the man the Munni-Munni locals allturn to, and for good reason. This former bank manager helped them transform three million dollars - stolen from bookies by a gang of robbers - into a rescue package for their dying town.
But now the day of reckoning has come.
The crims want the money.
The cops want the money.
A rogue insurance investigator wants the money.
And so do Australia's two most notorious hit men.
In trying to save his town, Lambert is forced to risk everything - his life, the lives of the town folk, his own daughter, ten thousand barramundi and a really lovable Jack Russell.
347 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2011
3 people are currently reading
79 people want to read
About the author
Derek Hansen
31 books45 followersDerek was born in London in June 1944 about the same time Hitler thought London was a great place to send his V1 flying bombs.
At the age of four he convinced his parents to emigrate and spent the next sixteen years in Auckland being called a Pommy and a wimp for playing soccer and not rugby.
His first published short story appeared in his grammar school yearbook.
Equipped with a million ideas for novels he approached the leading national newspaper for a traineeship and was told he was too undisciplined; approached publishers and was told he was too young; approached an advertising agency and was welcomed into their embrace – they knew a fast, facile, fashionably glib mind when they saw one.
His talent took him London in the sixties where his quirky style and commercial instincts brought a rapid rise through the ranks to the country’s top advertising agency, accumulating many international awards along the way.
Derek was lured to Australia by the usual inducements – money, sunshine, money, lifestyle, money, etc – and spent the next twenty-five years doing ads and wishing he was writing novels instead.
About the time Bryce Courtenay wrote The Power of One and Peter Carey wrote Bliss, Derek and his partners sold their advertising agency and three years later he was free to pursue his true writing ambitions.
Having spent a lifetime reducing masses of information to less than 100 words or thirty seconds of TV time, working in exactly the opposite direction did not come easy.
An idea for a novel can be written on a folded napkin. What follows takes thousands of tablecloths.
One day over lunch Derek had the bright idea of breaking his novel down into more easily managed bite-sized pieces and so the idea for the Lunch series was born.
Lunch with the Generals became an instant bestseller in Australasia and was sold into Britain, Scandinavia, France and Germany. Lunch with Mussolini followed but it was Sole Survivor that piqued American interest.
Simon and Schuster decided to publish an American edition and Kennedy-Marshall (Sixth Sense, Snow Falling on Cedars) bought the rights to the movie on behalf of Disney in a $US750,000 deal.
Three weeks before the movie was due to go into production, shooting began on Castaway with Tom Hanks. Two movies about a man on an island surrounded by salt water was deemed one too many, and Sole Survivor the movie bit the dust. How typical of Hollywood to choose to make the wrong movie.
Derek has subsequently published a further five novels and three collections of short stories, but nothing quite as quirky or funny as his latest novel, A Man You Can Bank On.
Derek is married, has two grown-up children and lives most of the time in Avalon on Pittwater, and some of the time in Doonan on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. Kingfish, salmon, bonito, bream and flathead live just outside his back door and the surf rises a short walk from the front door.
Someone had to have this life and Derek is just so glad that someone is him.
At the age of four he convinced his parents to emigrate and spent the next sixteen years in Auckland being called a Pommy and a wimp for playing soccer and not rugby.
His first published short story appeared in his grammar school yearbook.
Equipped with a million ideas for novels he approached the leading national newspaper for a traineeship and was told he was too undisciplined; approached publishers and was told he was too young; approached an advertising agency and was welcomed into their embrace – they knew a fast, facile, fashionably glib mind when they saw one.
His talent took him London in the sixties where his quirky style and commercial instincts brought a rapid rise through the ranks to the country’s top advertising agency, accumulating many international awards along the way.
Derek was lured to Australia by the usual inducements – money, sunshine, money, lifestyle, money, etc – and spent the next twenty-five years doing ads and wishing he was writing novels instead.
About the time Bryce Courtenay wrote The Power of One and Peter Carey wrote Bliss, Derek and his partners sold their advertising agency and three years later he was free to pursue his true writing ambitions.
Having spent a lifetime reducing masses of information to less than 100 words or thirty seconds of TV time, working in exactly the opposite direction did not come easy.
An idea for a novel can be written on a folded napkin. What follows takes thousands of tablecloths.
One day over lunch Derek had the bright idea of breaking his novel down into more easily managed bite-sized pieces and so the idea for the Lunch series was born.
Lunch with the Generals became an instant bestseller in Australasia and was sold into Britain, Scandinavia, France and Germany. Lunch with Mussolini followed but it was Sole Survivor that piqued American interest.
Simon and Schuster decided to publish an American edition and Kennedy-Marshall (Sixth Sense, Snow Falling on Cedars) bought the rights to the movie on behalf of Disney in a $US750,000 deal.
Three weeks before the movie was due to go into production, shooting began on Castaway with Tom Hanks. Two movies about a man on an island surrounded by salt water was deemed one too many, and Sole Survivor the movie bit the dust. How typical of Hollywood to choose to make the wrong movie.
Derek has subsequently published a further five novels and three collections of short stories, but nothing quite as quirky or funny as his latest novel, A Man You Can Bank On.
Derek is married, has two grown-up children and lives most of the time in Avalon on Pittwater, and some of the time in Doonan on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. Kingfish, salmon, bonito, bream and flathead live just outside his back door and the surf rises a short walk from the front door.
Someone had to have this life and Derek is just so glad that someone is him.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
July 6, 2011
I don't know - maybe it's because the book is set in a small country town struggling to survive (and I live 20 kilometres or so out of just such a town), or maybe it was the line on the opening page "He had the sort of body normally achieved by eating plankton.", but I was particularly disposed to liking A MAN YOU CAN BANK ON.
It's not going to come as much of a surprise that this is a bit of a romp style novel. There's the local town bank manager, a disgraced cop sent to the outback to serve his time, the bank manager's daughter, the local animatronics expert, a bloke connecting with his somewhat tenuous Aboriginal heritage (and a wife who is Aboriginal that thinks he's hilarious), Davo who runs the fish farm, a bunch of crooks, one crook's wife and her Kiwi driver, a couple of hired killers, an insurance investigator with an energiser bunny complex, a heap of Jack Russell dogs, a couple of city Detectives, some wolves, a large crocodile, assorted Japanese and German fighters, a motor bike, a clearing in the bush, a lake that didn't used to be there, a town on the brink of collapse and 3 million dollars. Despite a slight worry that this might all end up being a bit forced - firstly this was absolutely hilarious in places and secondly, there was a really good solid storyline in amongst the lunacy.
There are lots of delicious twists and turns in this tale - how Lambert Hampton found out about the buried millions, where he went from there, the timelines involved, how the authorities, the crooks, the insurance investigators and all can "think" they know what happened but "proving" it is a whole different kettle of barramundi. And then there's how much Lambert is prepared to put on the line when push comes to shove and his daughter, friends and a Jack Russell need rescuing.
This book really is wonderful example of its type. A fantastic romp with lots of action, lots of coincidences, a hefty dose of lunacy and some clever twisting and turning. There's some hilarious images, lines and situations, but at no time does the thing slip over into farce - it's all very believable and quintessentially Australian bush. There's some aspects which just made me cry with laughter - the way the Police Detective puts the media off the scent, the way Lambert counters with the town's reaction to the lake searching. And then there's the animatronics. Somebody really should remember to warn anyone new about those things.. but then again.
The only thing that worries me after finishing A MAN YOU CAN BANK ON is whether or not I can look the bloke who is working hard to keep our local town alive in the eye ever again. I keep telling myself he's just on the board of the community bank.. he was never the bank manager...
It's not going to come as much of a surprise that this is a bit of a romp style novel. There's the local town bank manager, a disgraced cop sent to the outback to serve his time, the bank manager's daughter, the local animatronics expert, a bloke connecting with his somewhat tenuous Aboriginal heritage (and a wife who is Aboriginal that thinks he's hilarious), Davo who runs the fish farm, a bunch of crooks, one crook's wife and her Kiwi driver, a couple of hired killers, an insurance investigator with an energiser bunny complex, a heap of Jack Russell dogs, a couple of city Detectives, some wolves, a large crocodile, assorted Japanese and German fighters, a motor bike, a clearing in the bush, a lake that didn't used to be there, a town on the brink of collapse and 3 million dollars. Despite a slight worry that this might all end up being a bit forced - firstly this was absolutely hilarious in places and secondly, there was a really good solid storyline in amongst the lunacy.
There are lots of delicious twists and turns in this tale - how Lambert Hampton found out about the buried millions, where he went from there, the timelines involved, how the authorities, the crooks, the insurance investigators and all can "think" they know what happened but "proving" it is a whole different kettle of barramundi. And then there's how much Lambert is prepared to put on the line when push comes to shove and his daughter, friends and a Jack Russell need rescuing.
This book really is wonderful example of its type. A fantastic romp with lots of action, lots of coincidences, a hefty dose of lunacy and some clever twisting and turning. There's some hilarious images, lines and situations, but at no time does the thing slip over into farce - it's all very believable and quintessentially Australian bush. There's some aspects which just made me cry with laughter - the way the Police Detective puts the media off the scent, the way Lambert counters with the town's reaction to the lake searching. And then there's the animatronics. Somebody really should remember to warn anyone new about those things.. but then again.
The only thing that worries me after finishing A MAN YOU CAN BANK ON is whether or not I can look the bloke who is working hard to keep our local town alive in the eye ever again. I keep telling myself he's just on the board of the community bank.. he was never the bank manager...
April 10, 2018
If you like your crime fiction laced with plenty of laughs, then this caper-style tale set in the Australian Outback could be just your ticket. Former bank manager Lambert Hampton helped transform the tiny town of Munni-Munni after stumbling across a robbery gang’s stash. Years later, the crims, the cops, a rogue investigator and two hit-men are all chasing the money, converging on the town, causing shenanigans aplenty. Hansen, who grew up in New Zealand, creates an intriguing tale packed with eccentric characters and memorable moments that stay with you long after the final page.
April 27, 2015
Update: 27 April 2015
First read: 9 June 2012
Just read this book again and I stand by my first review. It was just as good the second time round.
An absolutely brilliant book that I couldn’t get enough of. Recommended to me by a goodreads reader, it had everything I could want in a novel. It was funny, fast-paced, dramatic and even slightly romantic.
Hansen has a brilliant technique of creating a vast array of characters that are all so unique and wonderfully written. He makes a way to connect with each one of them from the Detective Inspector, to the local garage owner to the two most notorious hit-men in Australia. I particularly liked Stretch and Woody who were both comical and yet endearing. The town of Munni-Munni in particular is fantastically described in both physicality and in the way an isolated Australian town functions. As an English person this was a great insight into the Australian outback.
The plot is solid and while there are so many characters (I stopped counting after eight) in various locations of Australia and written from so many different perspectives, there is still the running core that keeps the direction focused and it flows steadily. It’s full of clever twists, which turns tough criminals into quivering wrecks and some ordinary townsfolk into heroes. There are some hilarious lines and scenes whereby I found myself chuckling aloud on the train.
This was a masterpiece of a novel, which I cannot fault at all. Clever, comical, crafty, I would happily read it over and over again.
First read: 9 June 2012
Just read this book again and I stand by my first review. It was just as good the second time round.
An absolutely brilliant book that I couldn’t get enough of. Recommended to me by a goodreads reader, it had everything I could want in a novel. It was funny, fast-paced, dramatic and even slightly romantic.
Hansen has a brilliant technique of creating a vast array of characters that are all so unique and wonderfully written. He makes a way to connect with each one of them from the Detective Inspector, to the local garage owner to the two most notorious hit-men in Australia. I particularly liked Stretch and Woody who were both comical and yet endearing. The town of Munni-Munni in particular is fantastically described in both physicality and in the way an isolated Australian town functions. As an English person this was a great insight into the Australian outback.
The plot is solid and while there are so many characters (I stopped counting after eight) in various locations of Australia and written from so many different perspectives, there is still the running core that keeps the direction focused and it flows steadily. It’s full of clever twists, which turns tough criminals into quivering wrecks and some ordinary townsfolk into heroes. There are some hilarious lines and scenes whereby I found myself chuckling aloud on the train.
This was a masterpiece of a novel, which I cannot fault at all. Clever, comical, crafty, I would happily read it over and over again.
June 24, 2016
Sorry but I don't think I can finish this, or at least not right now. It's a good yarn, but there's not enough going on to keep me reading and I don't feel particularly invested in what happens to Lambert or Munni-Munni. I do hope Stretch finds love though!
July 28, 2018
A great disappointment. This doesn't have the story telling finesse of Sole or Lunch series, but is entirely tongue in cheek claptrap.
April 14, 2018
I had to read this novel in a very short space of time for my next book club and it was made very easy for me as it was such a page turner. The book is quirky, funny, scary and original.
February 8, 2025
Great story full of hilarious Aussie characters
October 20, 2016
A ridiculous notion for a story, but what a ride! Engaging, funny and utterly original. Devoured it and really wanted more.
February 5, 2012
http://www.stevedow.com.au
RICH resources lie buried in the tiny, drought-stricken NSW town of Munni-Munni, purportedly “population bugger all and declining”, where every adult resident drives a modest but newish white Camry and the place is abundant in Jack Russells, each dog named after Australian Stock Exchange shares that have yielded a profit.
Gilded fish swim here, too: millions of dollars lie in wait near or beneath the man-made lake that houses the town’s famous barramundi farm.
This good fortune is down to a former bank manager, Lambert Hampton, who has turned the locals into entrepreneurs. Question for the law is, how did he raise the capital to reverse this conservative little town’s fortunes: surely not from the missing proceeds of a great bookie robbery years earlier?
Intrigued, I tried to find Munni-Munni on Google Maps, knowing London-born, Pittwater-based novelist Derek Hansen had probably made the place up in this, his latest novel, A Man You Can Bank On. I plotted the route of policeman Duncan “Stretch” Beddington’s introduction to the town, driving north through Bathurst, Dubbo, Gilgandra, Gulargambone and Quambone: all real places so far; all easy to find.
The trail should have then turned right into Munni-Munni, said to be “no more than three streets wide with one cross street in the middle, just to add excitement”. But: nothing. Yes, there is a place called Munni, as in singular, population 4942, between Dungog and the Barrington Tops National Park, but that’s up to eight hours’ drive from Quambone. That’d be one heck of a right turn.
Perhaps Munni-Munni was a mere play on “money, money”. Or, maybe, the name had been borrowed from Munni Munni Creek (no hyphen) on the other side of the country in the Western Australian Pilbara, the traditional lands of the Ngarluma people, a dreaming place where nearby there’s said to be rich gold and platinum group deposits.
One of the Jack Russells in A Man You Can Bank On is named Fortescue; is this tale an allusion to mining? Ah, such are the byways of driving a piqued imagination through juxtaposed real and imagined destinations.
By journey’s end, the reader shouldn’t expect much more than an action-packed day of reckoning when the bad guys bust out of jail, prepared to inflict bodily damage to recoup their ill-gotten gains, in much the same way the reader is disabused from taking on face value the book’s ginger-headed, freckle-faced Mick O’Connor’s claim he is the “only surviving member of the Munni-Munni people”. Making a gag out of cultural Aboriginal identity is brave joke territory, though perhaps safe ground when there’s no such mob.
I wanted to see much more of the quirky townspeople and what they had achieved with their enterprises, however. One guy, for instance, created an animatronics business, but I never really pictured this eccentric, with too little information provided. Obtuse too is the former banker Lambert’s psychology – his cool collectedness explained by some experience of being bullied in his banking career – while his life and business partner, Annette, a former executive and one-time whistleblower, only gets her story told through Lambert himself.
Female characters don’t get much of a look-in here, except when they’re initiating sex. Lambert’s daughter Sophie gets one such brief, hilariously hungry scene – “Enough of the fancy stuff! Horse the bloody thing into me!” – but this is a blokes’ story: policeman Stretch, dodgy insurance investigator Woody, and two nasty hit men known as Irish and The Bowler, the latter given to a lot of malapropisms.
The good news is Hansen is a dab hand at an action scene: when Woody’s in strife, the book is a real page-turner. Perhaps though there’s too many police and crim characters here. The novel has a clever premise – to what extent might otherwise honest people go to save a town, and how would they bury their deeds – but this idea is slowly abandoned as the story embraces a conventional gunfire and hostage plot.
RICH resources lie buried in the tiny, drought-stricken NSW town of Munni-Munni, purportedly “population bugger all and declining”, where every adult resident drives a modest but newish white Camry and the place is abundant in Jack Russells, each dog named after Australian Stock Exchange shares that have yielded a profit.
Gilded fish swim here, too: millions of dollars lie in wait near or beneath the man-made lake that houses the town’s famous barramundi farm.
This good fortune is down to a former bank manager, Lambert Hampton, who has turned the locals into entrepreneurs. Question for the law is, how did he raise the capital to reverse this conservative little town’s fortunes: surely not from the missing proceeds of a great bookie robbery years earlier?
Intrigued, I tried to find Munni-Munni on Google Maps, knowing London-born, Pittwater-based novelist Derek Hansen had probably made the place up in this, his latest novel, A Man You Can Bank On. I plotted the route of policeman Duncan “Stretch” Beddington’s introduction to the town, driving north through Bathurst, Dubbo, Gilgandra, Gulargambone and Quambone: all real places so far; all easy to find.
The trail should have then turned right into Munni-Munni, said to be “no more than three streets wide with one cross street in the middle, just to add excitement”. But: nothing. Yes, there is a place called Munni, as in singular, population 4942, between Dungog and the Barrington Tops National Park, but that’s up to eight hours’ drive from Quambone. That’d be one heck of a right turn.
Perhaps Munni-Munni was a mere play on “money, money”. Or, maybe, the name had been borrowed from Munni Munni Creek (no hyphen) on the other side of the country in the Western Australian Pilbara, the traditional lands of the Ngarluma people, a dreaming place where nearby there’s said to be rich gold and platinum group deposits.
One of the Jack Russells in A Man You Can Bank On is named Fortescue; is this tale an allusion to mining? Ah, such are the byways of driving a piqued imagination through juxtaposed real and imagined destinations.
By journey’s end, the reader shouldn’t expect much more than an action-packed day of reckoning when the bad guys bust out of jail, prepared to inflict bodily damage to recoup their ill-gotten gains, in much the same way the reader is disabused from taking on face value the book’s ginger-headed, freckle-faced Mick O’Connor’s claim he is the “only surviving member of the Munni-Munni people”. Making a gag out of cultural Aboriginal identity is brave joke territory, though perhaps safe ground when there’s no such mob.
I wanted to see much more of the quirky townspeople and what they had achieved with their enterprises, however. One guy, for instance, created an animatronics business, but I never really pictured this eccentric, with too little information provided. Obtuse too is the former banker Lambert’s psychology – his cool collectedness explained by some experience of being bullied in his banking career – while his life and business partner, Annette, a former executive and one-time whistleblower, only gets her story told through Lambert himself.
Female characters don’t get much of a look-in here, except when they’re initiating sex. Lambert’s daughter Sophie gets one such brief, hilariously hungry scene – “Enough of the fancy stuff! Horse the bloody thing into me!” – but this is a blokes’ story: policeman Stretch, dodgy insurance investigator Woody, and two nasty hit men known as Irish and The Bowler, the latter given to a lot of malapropisms.
The good news is Hansen is a dab hand at an action scene: when Woody’s in strife, the book is a real page-turner. Perhaps though there’s too many police and crim characters here. The novel has a clever premise – to what extent might otherwise honest people go to save a town, and how would they bury their deeds – but this idea is slowly abandoned as the story embraces a conventional gunfire and hostage plot.
May 5, 2024
Lambert Hampton is the man the Munni-Munni locals allturn to, and for good reason. This former bank manager helped them transform three million dollars - stolen from bookies by a gang of robbers - into a rescue package for their dying town.
But now the day of reckoning has come.
The crims want the money.
The cops want the money.
A rogue insurance investigator wants the money.
And so do Australia's two most notorious hit men.
But now the day of reckoning has come.
The crims want the money.
The cops want the money.
A rogue insurance investigator wants the money.
And so do Australia's two most notorious hit men.
March 3, 2012
Eat your heart out Carl Hiassen and Elmore Leonard. Here is a quirky crime story with an Australian accent. I discovered a while ago Derek Hansen could write great dramatic novels, now he's come up with this comic bottler.
December 27, 2011
Laugh out loud! I usually wouldn't pick up a book like this, but I am so glad someone put it up for my bookclub list. Would make a great Aussie movie!
February 11, 2013
Quite enjoyed this book, amusing read!!
March 22, 2013
Great Book, lots of lol moments.
June 21, 2015
Bring on a film based on the fun, quirky, silly, gangster novel.
No serious litutiture just a jolly romp.
No serious litutiture just a jolly romp.
May 23, 2014
It took me a while to get into this book, but, like 2-tone ska, well worth it. Good characters and no cheesiness for a cops-and-robbers caper - t'riffic.
May 9, 2016
A funny fast paced cops and robbers novel that was very entertaining and an easy read.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews